Andy & Ari On3 - How Big Ten-ready are the Oregon Ducks? | The transfer portal RBs are finding new homes

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Gametime is the best place to buy last-minute tickets to sporting events, concerts and comedy shows. Making plans to follow your team on the road this college football season? Gametime has tickets to every game. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.We’re talking about what Oregon should expect from the Big Ten and what the Big Ten should expect from the Ducks, but we also need to acknowledge that elsewhere in the Big Ten, the Dylan Raiola hype machine is operating at full capacity after Raiola’s spring game performance.(0:00-3:32) Intro - Oregon Spring Game(3:33-11:04) Nebraska Spring Game(11:05-25:29) Pete Nakos joins to update on the portal(25:30-36:50) Group of 5 Playoff?(36:51-56:59) Justin Hopkins from ScoopDuck joins(57:00-1:06:39) NFL Draft Recap(1:06:40-1:09:32) EA Sports Cover(1:09:33-1:10:04) ConclusionOn3 national reporter Pete Nakos joins to discuss the latest on the spring transfer portal window. Oregon State RB transfer Damien Martinez has committed to Miami, and Colorado RB transfer Dylan Edwards has committed to Kansas State. Meanwhile, Colorado wrapped spring practice and continued to add more transfers. That includes RB Rashad Amos, a Miami (Ohio) transfer who originally had planned to go to Mississippi State.Next, Justin Hopkins of Scoop Duck joins to talk about Oregon. The Ducks wrapped spring practice Saturday, and Oklahoma transfer QB Dillon Gabriel looks like he’s been in Eugene forever. We also got a look at a few potential star freshmen on defense, and we got our first look at QB Dante Moore as a Duck.Plus, Andy breaks down the rest of the NFL draft....Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/31fMSmF-mtY

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday is a happy Monday indeed. And a couple of big 10 towns, one very, very strange to say that for one of these and kid Andy would say it's very strange to say that for both of these, but they had the spring games in Eugene and Lincoln this weekend and everybody left very happy and very excited about the quarterback play, about what they're expecting from this season. Now, two different levels of expectation at Oregon and Nebraska, but I think an equal level of excitement because of kind of where they're at, where they think they're going. We'll start with Oregon.

Dylan Gabriel looked like he's been playing at Oregon forever. Wearing number eight, like Marcus Mariota, fellow Hawaiian, looked spectacular. Looked like he had been playing in that offense for his entire life. And we're going to talk to Justin Hopkins later in the show from ScoopDuck about where Oregon's at right now, where Oregon's at as they head into the Big Ten. How's the roster? Is it capable of competing with Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten? Because that's what everyone seems to suspect. If you go to FanDuel, you look at those season win total projections. Ten and a half for Oregon, ten and a half for Ohio State. They play each other in October in Austin Stadium.

So the thought is that Oregon is right there, that they've been recruiting at an elite level. They should be able to compete with everybody. And I think the question we have for Oregon is, yes, you have the roster and you've had the roster. I would argue that Dan took over a roster good enough from Mario Cristobal to win the conference when he took over a couple of years ago. But Utah won that year. Washington won the following year. They lost to Washington twice last year. That's where Oregon has to get over the hump. They've got to stop losing games like that.

They've got to, when they are the more talented team, it's got to show. But if you watch Dylan Gabriel in that offense, you're like, okay, this could be that year. And that's what we've kind of wondered when Dylan Gabriel left Oklahoma. And obviously Oklahoma had to make a choice because they had Jackson Arnold, high ceiling, lots of eligibility remaining, first big recruit of the Brent Venables era. And they still had another year potentially with Dylan Gabriel. They had to choose. They chose Jackson Arnold. Dylan Gabriel is the perfect fit for Oregon right now. And then we'll talk a little bit with Justin about it though. Dante Moore, who originally committed to Oregon, flipped

to UCLA, played for UCLA last year. He's now at Oregon. He's got three more years of eligibility. It looks like they've got a succession plan in place now, which would be pretty good. That would be something that Oregon hasn't really had the advantage of because Bo Nix came in as a transfer from Auburn. They got two years out of him. Now Dylan Gabriel comes in, and then Dante Moore would have the luxury of actually being in the system, then able to ascend to the starting role. Maybe. We'll see.

They've also got Austin Nova sad, but Oregon feeling very, very confident. They're also feeling very confident in Nebraska. And I realize when it's the off season, when we start saying nice things about Nebraska, everybody gets very excited and Lincoln. And then the season starts and it's like, oh, you lied to us.

You lied. Maybe we're not this time. Maybe we're not exaggerating, but I will temper it a little bit. Dylan Raiola, true freshman quarterback. Biggest recruit Nebraska signed in a long, long, long, long, long, long time. Legacy. biggest recruit in brass assigned in long long long long long time legacy he completed 16 of 22 passes for 239 yards two touchdowns he had a 64 yard touchdown to jaylen lloyd i thought the the more exciting throw was actually the the touchdown pass at the end of his first drive to elijah judy which had really nice touch in the, in the back corner, in the end zone, he looked good.

He looked good out there. And I know that gets everybody in Nebraska excited. Here's, here's where, here's the little caveat I will give. Given what we know about Nebraska's defense, which was very good last season, Tony White, the DC he's back. He's going to be a head coach someday, but he did not get a head coaching job this off season. So he's still there. Much of the personnel on Nebraska's defense is back. Matt Rule, the head coach could have said, Hey, Tony, don't let the offense do

anything. And they could have completely shut down pretty much any true freshman quarterback in the country if they'd wanted to. So there was a switch that probably could have been flipped that would have made the takeaway from this game very different. But Matt Rule's smart enough to know that he doesn't want four months of complaining going into the offseason. He's fine with this. But the things Dylan Riella showed you, they seem translatable. And Matt Rule clearly trying not to get too ahead of himself and certainly not wanting to crank up the hype machine and also wanting to make sure his quarterback room stays together. They've got Heiner Karberg who wanted the season as a starter at the end of last year.

They've got Kalen, who's another true freshman. So they've got those guys. They want to keep that intact. But clearly everybody's excited, and that's one of the first questions out of the box that Matt Rule got. I think Dylan's had a very good spring. The plays I liked, I was up doing the TV at one point, that one where we kicked a field goal that we missed.

You could see he wanted so badly to throw the ball back across the middle of the field as he was scrambling, and he didn't. You know, the one scrambling he ends probably a sack, you know, but he's got two hands on the ball as he's running. So it's going to be the little things with Dylan, not the big things, right? He's got a great feel for the game. He's got a big-time arm. He's calm. It's going to be the little things. It's not the big things, right? He's got a great feel for the game. He's got a big-time arm. He's calm. It's going to be the little things. It's going to be protecting the football, taking three,

managing the game. I thought it just felt like he did a lot of those things, but he hasn't done all of them. He's grown as the spring has gone on. So he, like all the rest of our players, I think had a chance today to just improve on what they did last week, and I thought in a lot of ways he did.

That is what he needs to say. And it's also what Dylan Riella needs to do because he's right. Like go back to last season, go back to the beginning, the first two games of last season, the Minnesota game and the Colorado game, Jeff Sims, who we talked about a little bit last week, because he's in the transfer portal. He's trying to figure out what his next move is, but they had some crippling turnovers. Should have won the Minnesota game. It was in hand. They had a fumble. They had an

interception there at the end of the game. That was the difference between bowl eligibility and not bowl eligibility and it was opening night. And that Colorado game bunch of turnovers right before halftime that was the end of that game maybe you're in that game if you don't have all those turnovers so what Matt Rule is talking about with Dylan Raiola the the two hands on the ball that that sort of thing that's the part he's got to have when the season starts because the margin is not that wide. The margin is pretty thin for Nebraska unless the offense really develops and takes off. We know the defense is going to be good, but the expectation this year is you're got to be better and you got to be able to make a bowl game.

Six and six is the bare minimum. This team has a schedule that can win more than six games. It really does. If you look at the way it lays out for Nebraska, they should win more than six games. They should be bowl eligible. That defense should be able to carry them for most of this. The question is, can you be competitive in games that you're maybe not supposed to win. That's where the offense comes in. That's where Dylan Raiola can elevate them because they haven't had that kind of guy, that 6'4", 230-pound guy. But we don't know yet because, again, if Matt Rule had wanted to, he could have told Tony White, shut it all down, and that offense probably would have not moved very well.

So we saw what they wanted us to see, but we came away excited. And I can imagine Nebraska fans are very excited. We're going to talk to Sean Callahan from Hustler Online on tomorrow's show and get real deep. We're going to crank up that Dylan Raiola hype machine Because, well, it's April. It's almost May. And that's what we do. But also, like I just said, Nebraska legitimately hasn't had somebody like this. So maybe this is a corner that can be turned. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. In a minute, we're going to be talking to Pete Nacos, updating you on the comings and goings in the transfer portal. Damian Martinez, the Oregon State running back, who announced that he was going to the portal before this portal window opened. One of the bigger prizes of the portal, he's picked a school. Dylan Edwards, the Colorado transfer. He has picked the school. We will break all of that down with Pete.

But first I got to tell you about game time. We just talked about the Oregon football schedule. How exciting that is. First season, the big 10. They got Ohio State coming to Eugene in October. Do you want tickets to that game? You can get them on game time. Download that game time app.

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Use the code STAPLES. $20 off your first purchase, and get yourself some tickets. All right. staples $20 off your first purchase and get yourself some tickets all right it is time to talk to Pete Nacos the master of the transfer portal there's a lot a lot of people fine at homes Pete this is it's moving weekend yeah yeah but a busy weekend yes is it is it is it just because as the the portal's about to close again everybody's in the musical chairs mode like i gotta make sure i find a place yeah i think that's a lot of it and obviously athletes don't have to commit during that 15 day window but guys want to make sure they lock down a spot especially in this day and age with roster management and top recruits and things.

You never know these days, right? And you hear so much about recruits maybe losing spots. Well, transfers are going to lose spots too if they don't lock up their decision sooner or later. So Damian Martinez, the guy we've been talking about since even before this one opened, one of the bigger prizes, a very accomplished running running back was great at Oregon State last year obviously a lot of things changed Jonathan Smith goes to Michigan State Aiden Childs their quarterback but follows him to Michigan State so Martinez entered the portal he has now found a home where's he going Pete he is going to be a hurt king he uh committed on Saturday to to Miami

um Damian Martinez didn't rush this process by any means. He took visits to Arizona and Mississippi State. He also called off visits to Tennessee and Kentucky. Miami went in home twice with him, Andy, and I think that made all the difference. The Canes were the team to beat from the beginning. Not much surprise in all of this, but from a football perspective, a huge pickup in what it does to that backfield

and gives Cam Ward another weapon to work with. Well, and Miami wasn't done this weekend because I've started the player of consequence alert for when, and we're going to use that in the spring portal. We don't need to use that in the winter portal because there's a lot of players of consequence in the winter portal but in the spring portal when you get a guy who enters the portal who clearly was in the in his current team's plans for the next year that's the one you got to watch jalen alderman at louisville a linebacker

was one of those guys he entered the portal he's joining damian martinez in miami yeah so he uh committed on sunday and then another really big pickup for Miami on Sunday was the Houston wide receiver, Sam Brown, who started his career off at West Virginia. And then, then what's Houston. Now he's going to go at Miami.

He has a connection to that coaching staff. I believe Shannon, he was with Shannon Don Dawson at one point. I think that, that Miami has become one of the go-to destinations in the spring window. And I say that because they have available roster spots, and I think a lot of athletes are really excited to play with Cam Ward.

Yeah, and this is a good roster. This was a pretty good roster already. And I think you add what they've added. They've added pieces where these are not guys who are necessarily going to be massive stars but maybe damian martinez could be but they are going to fill roles that needed to be filled and miami should have the depth they need i i still think with miami it's it's really not a matter of talent it's a matter of can mario cristobal do the right things on game day because I feel like

they're they're equipped to compete with pretty much anybody on their schedule yeah I mean you you look at the roster a lot of really good young talent that brought in the wide receiver Jojo Trader who uh should get some reps immediately and I I mean you say I I think back to the game last year and the the exact team they played slips my mind. Georgia Tech? Right, Georgia Tech. Yeah, that Georgia Tech game, and how they mismanaged the end of the fourth quarter.

Things like that can't happen in 2024. And you talk to anyone down there, and they're so confident about all the talent they have. So this is going to be a prove-it year from REO, Cristobal. Yeah, I'm looking at that schedule, and they should be 9 and three at worst with that schedule that because like florida is a game they can win i'm not going to hand it to them because i need to see them do it florida state's one that florida state will be favored uh everywhere else at louisville maybe maybe not but everywhere else they're gonna be favored

and there's like three or four games on there where i'm like okay like those are gonna be interesting games to watch but i mean there's also should be a lot of wins on that schedule as well yeah that at syracuse after we had fran brown on the show i'm i'm in the bag for syracuse this year so i'm very in the bag for syracuse i'm. I'm very in the bag for Syracuse. I'm also curious, right, at Louisville and then home against Florida State, like that's a big two-game stretch. Yeah. So Willie in the chat. Willie, by the way, the guy who created the term Nicosifications,

he's one of our favorite viewers, says Miami went in home with a portal player and Colorado won't even go in home with a high school player. I guess in-home visits do work. Funny how Willie mentions Colorado because even though Deion Sanders not doing a lot of in-home visits and really probably couldn't do a ton right now because they were just finishing up spring practice this past weekend, they added quite a bit through the portal over the last few days. Rashad Amos, the running back from Miami of Ohio, who was originally going to Mississippi State.

Zachariah Owens, the Clemson O-line transfer. Auburn DB Colton Hood, whose brother Brandon is a 24 recruit who also committed to Colorado. And Nakai Hill-Green, he was one of the Biff Pogie Michigan to Charlotte guys. He was a captain at Charlotte last year. Now he's headed to Colorado. Yeah i think um the the last two weekends now for for colorado this past weekend was a spring game and they've done a really good job of getting guys out to boulder and

i know willie in the chat pointed out how they don't do the in-home visits um but obviously something's going right when they get the guys on campus in Boulder for the official visits out there with Dion. Um, I really liked the additions to the, to the offensive and defensive line. You added Peyton Kirkland last weekend, you added, um, Ray and Buell, you added a handful of guys who I think could actually like help Colorado and, and both lines, uh lines kind of, I don't know, the big 12 is going to be good this year.

So it's, it's going to be interesting to see how everything's handled. And when you think about Shador Sanders, his past year, you think about all the sacks. Yeah. I mean, I know he could be a round one draft down in 2025,

but it's hard to not think about that Colorado 2023 season and think about all the sacks. Well, and here's my my skepticism regarding dion and the recruiting plan is it doesn't seem like they're they're planning much of the future but you actually look at some like zechariah owens and then you mentioned peyton kirkland from texas those are offensive line with multiple years of eligibility uh zechariah owens has four years of eligibility he registered at Clemson last year so perhaps that's the plan and and there is a future plan going on for to build an offensive line to build you know build a defensive line but that's where my skepticism lies but if you're going to do this that I can live with this if you're going to bring

in highly recruited offensive linemen who maybe didn't work out at their first school or maybe they just wanted to change the scenery and you have them for three or four years that that more resembles a plan than what we were seeing before and they have jordan seaton too who's also a freshman those are three guys with a lot of eligibility um yeah it's it's we're all kind of gearing up for this year right like the last year travis hunter shador shiloh like should be very interesting to see how it plays out my bigger question as as you were getting to is like okay what does all of this look like at colorado at colorado after uh this season yeah and and that's i think and dion addressed that he was either in the post

spring game press conference or one late last week where he said you know i know everybody thinks i'm leaving when shadur and shiloh leave but i'm not so okay you you got to show us that through how you plan for for post shadur and shiloh because the the thing is like chris clyman is planning for however many years down the road at kansas state and you've got to deal with him in your conference you know lance leipold is preparing for multiple years down the road and that that's the that's the harder part speaking of chris clyman and speaking of colorado and coach prime dylan edwards the colorado back transfer, has found a home. He's going to Kansas State to reunite with his buddy Avery Johnson.

Yeah, Dylan Edwards was in Manhattan, Kansas all weekend, got there Friday night, spent all day Saturday and Sunday there, and then committed to the coaching staff Sunday at a brunch, from my understanding. I mean, what a huge pickup for Chris Lyman. And Avery Johnson was his host for the weekend. It just added up at so many different levels. Really, really excited to see this backfield, right, with Avery and Dylan Edwards. But they already have experience there.

And you get the feeling that Dylan Edwards could become a huge threat in the passing game. Yeah. Yeah, and the thing is, if only there were a history of short running backs being good at Kansas State. If they'd ever had a few that could have done something there, maybe we'd... No. It's a thing. When a guy like Dylan Edwards shows up with that power cat on his helmet, you you're like okay we've seen this we've seen this movie before we we know what

happens here but the other thing is DJ Giddens is back so there's no pressure on Dylan Edwards to carry the running game and let's be real here Avery Johnson is going to be a massive part of the K-State running game this year so uh P Maximus with a really interesting question in the chat that I think you can probably address here pete how do you feel about a maureen walker supposedly returning back to michigan as a wide receiver after transferring to old miss remember maureen walker was a corner who transferred from michigan to old miss in the winter portal well p maximus i can answer your question saying that i have had sources tell me that he is expected to return to Michigan I haven't returned I haven't been able to track down if it's a wide receiver cornerback I kind of get the feeling that they're open to doing both as long as he returns to the

program um I as a wide receiver he was talented uh I think a lot of people thought he had a lot of upside as a cornerback too I don't really think it matters. Either way, it's going to be a good get for Michigan to get Morgan Walker back on the roster. We had to come up with a name for this, by the way, Pete. I was thinking about this this morning because Caden Proctor is another example of this from Alabama to Iowa, then back to Alabama, where you transfer back to your original school. There are a couple other guys this weekend that we heard

might be doing that, too. It's not a bounce back because a bounce back is someone who kind of goes back home after like a five-star who grew up in Orlando who went to a Big Ten school but then transfers to UCF. That's a bounce back.

Could this be a boomerang? Oh, that is great, Andy. I was sitting here thinking of things but that i don't think i can take credit for that i i think somebody else mentioned that on the show about a month ago okay maybe i might have been dukes might have been it might have been philip dukes but shout out to dukes on that one that's great yeah no but it's got to be it's got to be a boomerang so yeah this is boomerang so morgan walker got to be a boomerang. Yeah, it has to be a boomerang. So, Morgan Walker, congratulations to the newest boomerang,

if you wind up back in Ann Arbor. Oh, one more, because I do want to get to an interesting kind of legislative topic in college football, because I always like talking realignment with you too yeah willie says it was dukes the scoop so good i'm glad i gave proper credit to the right person so i did probably i'm surprised it wasn't willie because willie's come up with with a lot of this show our executive producer willie t exactly one more one more transfer question. So Nick Roush, our friend from Kentucky Sports Radio, reported over the weekend that Penny Boone, who is the 2023 MAAC Offensive Player of the Year at Toledo, he had initially planned to transfer to Louisville. Then he was going to look elsewhere. It looked like he was going to land at Kentucky. Nick reports that because of

some sort of academic transfer issue, transferring credits, uh, that he will not be able to transfer to Kentucky. So what happens to Penny Boone now? Yeah, this has been something that I'm monitoring for about 10 days now. And, um, uh, there was some real momentum that he was going to get into Kentucky. I haven't actually been like formally involved that Kentucky's off the table. Um, but what I will tell you is that if he can't get into Kentucky, I think the same will go at some other schools across the country that he was eyeing. And I,

I, I really can't tell you what's going to happen. I know that, that the way things ended at Louisville, I think there's a chance he could go back, but I can't tell you certainly that, that Louisville is going to be an option. And we're going to see this for as long as this happens.

And again, we don't know how long this system is going to be in place. But for as long as this happens where guys can transfer as much as they want, you're going to see this academic piece come into play because schools have rules about what they can take. And if you've been to multiple schools before, it probably gets even harder. And like Penny Boone started at Maryland, went to Toledo. This would be school number – well, because he was at Louisville. Yeah, he was at Louisville for months.

Yeah. So I imagine like the registrar's office is going to have its say in quite a few of these things. And I'll also say like I'm not an agent i'm not an attorney i would just tell athletes to make sure to check it out because i'll tell you that programs that you're leaving are not going to like go out of their way to make sure that you know that you're academically eligible or not yeah yeah they're probably they might not pick up your phone call at the registrar's office at your school that you're leaving. So you do have to be aware of that.

Now, Pete, one more thing I wanted to ask you about, because this is something that bubbled up late last week. And I'm fascinated by this because it's one of those things that when the idea was initially pitched a few years ago, it was immediately poo-pooed. Everybody's like, no, this won't work. And now people are coming back around on it. It's the idea of a separate group of five playoff and i guess there's a a private equity group and they have tasked former tennessee coach derrick dooley with approaching the folks i hope he wore the orange pants when he made his approach but i'm just imagining all these these finance bros and they're in their

fleece quarter zips like who who is the perfect person to pitch this to the commissioners and ads of the of the group of five schools i know derrick dooley on a very macro level i really like the idea and if you look at the the cfp deal in place right now right the big 10 the sec SEC are getting 29% more than everyone else or something like that. I think from a financial standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. I know we can get into this some more, but the way everything is headed, The Athletic obviously had a really well-reported article about a Super League, but let's be honest here, if there's ever going to be a Super League, there's going to be about 30 or 40 teams and they're all going to come from the sec

and the big 10 at the moment um yeah so this is i mean those two leagues with the expansion have have combined for 29 of the 40 available cfp slots in the since 2014 mike oresko who's the outgoing commissioner of the american he's retiring tim pernetti's coming in but oresko, who's the outgoing commissioner of the American, he's retiring. Tim Pernetti's coming in. But Oresko said when talking about this particular idea, he's against it because he doesn't feel like they should basically call themselves a second division. They shouldn't act like second class citizens. But there's more support for this because I think the worry is that the Big Ten and the SEC at some point, you're just going to pull the rug out from under, because you mentioned like the revenue sharing in the college football playoff. The reason this didn't get any traction a few years ago,

because remember the Northern Illinois AD had pitched it and they, they didn't, nobody wanted to do it because it's like, okay, we're getting this free money from the CFP and the CFP is expanding. So we're going to have a spot in it. So why would we give that up? But now you've seen them change the formula for revenue sharing in the CFP.

They're getting 9% of 1.3 billion. That's the group of fives can split that. There's 117 million. So that's your magic number. I would think Pete, like if you can beat that in a TV deal, that might be worth it. I would also think, Andy, that there would be an appetite.

I think Willie T said it in the chat too. Early December, if you had a really intriguing groupified playoff and then the winner of that could get the CFP slot, I know that's a lot of football. I know that's probably a huge hypothetical, but that would be so much fun. It would be fun. A team could play for the slot, but I don't think it would make football sense when it comes to how many games.

Now, we have the same discussion with the power leagues about how they would – if they would consolidate, if they'd be willing to reorganize in a more even fashion, but I don't think they're going to do that. One of the parts of this proposal that's being passed around now is that the group of five leagues could conceivably reorganize into regional divisions that would feed into the playoff, which I think would actually be kind of cool. But again, you have the same problem is the Sun Belt doesn't make the same problem is is the sunbelt doesn't make the same as the american the american doesn't make

the same as conference usa everybody kind of wants to protect their corners but in this one the the money differences are not so stark like i can't see the big 10 and the big 12 doing this because the big 10 makes so much more than big 12 but, but you might be able to, to pitch that. And here's my other thing about this, Pete, at what point, if you're in the group of five, and I think this is what some of those, those ADs and some of those commissioners are thinking here, you have a spot in the CFP. You're never going to win it. Yeah. Like your team's never going to win it. You might get two teams in one year, but more than likely you're just going to win it yeah like your team's never going to win it you might get two teams in one year but more than likely you're just going to get one it's going to be viewed as a token thing right like why

not have a competitive division where you just play and your winner wins something that means something yeah let me stand on my pulpit for a minute i mean there are so many athletes who play in that group of five football like they deserve to have a real playoff chance like if we're gonna be honest here like they deserve to have a shot to try to win for like a national championship of sorts and i mean obviously the way college football is set up they haven't had a fair chance to do that and and i fully respect the fact that the power for is the power for, and obviously the top funded programs and things like that have should win the national title.

And that's just how it works. But I mean, the group of five should definitely have an opportunity to try to win a national title. And if that means they have to have their own playoff, then be it. I had someone recommend a book to me a few years ago called the club, which is about how the premier league was formed as Joshua Robinson and

Jonathan Clegg's book about that. They actually just did a formula one book, which I need to read, but the club is really interesting. And the reason the person recommended it to me is they said, Greg Sankey read this book, the sec commissioner and was fascinated by it and was fascinated by the parallels between this and college football.

And one thing the person who recommended it to me told me and suggested that i had not thought about this person's like listen look at the championship division in soccer in england that's the one below the premier league they have teams that fill their stadiums they sell out they make money they're profitable and like that's the part that I, because I don't think the fans of those schools would suddenly abandon their schools if they weren't going to some SEC school for 1.3 million to get battered every year. And they still might do that, by the way.

It's not off the table if you have your own playoff. No, totally. I mean, you think about it, way college football system set up, right? I mean, fans root for their alma mater. Fans root for their hometown team. Like, there's a lot of things going for, like, people that want to pack stadiums other than just being good at the sport itself. Well, there's also price point.

Like, let's say you're a Michigan fan.'s say you're a, you're a Michigan fan. Here's a high, this is a hypothetical, but you're a Michigan fan. You live in Metro Detroit. Maybe you can't afford season tickets to Michigan, but maybe Chris Creighton has, has Eastern Michigan playing really,

really well. And you want to take your family to a football game. And Eastern Michigan is, is really good. Like there's a, you might buy those tickets, especially if they're playing family to a football game. And Eastern Michigan is really good. You might buy those tickets, especially if they're playing in a playoff game. Yeah. So I don't know. I think there's going to be more discussion of this.

I understood why it got poo-pooed initially. But right now, I think Willie, again, in the chat, a G5 playoff would be like Maction on steroids. It would likely generate much more than 9% crumbs they get from the CFP. It also gives options to use the smaller bowl games. That's also true. I would love that. And it's also kind of a nod to history.

Some of those Sunbelt teams, Pete, like Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, were dominant FCS programs. They're used to playoff runs yeah no exactly and derrick in the comments said no one deserves anything it's earned and i i fully understand that derrick but i think that the there's a bottom half of college football who and that's probably going to look really different moving forward to compared to where we are right now yeah well and look south does the south dakota state deserve a national title more than say i you know appalachia state yeah because they're in different divisions now but south dakota state can play for the national title you can say appalachia state

chose to not compete for national titles anymore yeah but they could choose to do it again if the sun belt decided they wanted to go this way so that this is this is a legitimate thing that they need to think about because if the big 10 and the sec are going to consolidate more at the top that this could be a reality and they need to be ready for it so i i i would watch this one i would follow along with this one derrick dooley is leading the charge i love it i hope he got a i hope he got a really nice quarters up out of it pete nacos thank you so much have a great day andy that is the great pete nacos we love talking to pete he is tremendous and man he's he's got there's not a name i i guarantee you there's not a name we should we should play this game next time we have pete on like i'm

gonna have you guys in the chat just find the most random people still in the transfer portal and we're gonna throw him at pete and be like where's this dude going and i bet he knows he's talked to the guy's agent like he knows exactly where everybody's going. So we'll have some fun with Pete, but that group of five playoff scenario, you've got a number you've got to hit. That's really it. Like 117 million is your number. Can you do better than that? Is it something you think you can grow? That's the legitimate question. And I do think there's a legitimate worry that that number, that 117 million could get yanked away at some point by the Big Ten and the SEC. I still think a larger college football playoff at the top probably is better for the sport.

But if you feel like you're not serving your own schools and you can make it more money a different way, then that's what the compromise, as Pete mentioned, would be. You have this playoff at the group of five level, and maybe it's an eight-team playoff, and that feeds into the CFP where the winning team can go play. But I don't know. Again, there still feels like a little bit of tokenism there, and I don't know. I think that's what they're trying to avoid.

But keep an eye on that one. Keep an eye on that one because that's an idea that five years ago just got blasted off the map, and now it gets brought up again, and it's like, ooh, that is very interesting. But let us move back to the Power 2. One of the newest members of the Power 2, Oregon, is headed to the Big Ten from the Pac-12. Oregon will head to the Big Ten with massive expectations.

And after you watch their spring game, you understand why. Because this was one of the better rosters in the Pac-12. This will be one of the better rosters in the Big Ten. And they got a quarterback. Dylan Gabriel just popped right in there. Looked like he'd been doing it for a long time. Let us now talk to Justin Hopkins ofkins of on three scoop duck about oregon as it is at spring and heads into the big ten

joined now by justin hopkins of scoop duck taking a well-deserved respite following spring practice he's in palm springs man i gotta go to Palm Springs this is beautiful but but J-hop you know what else was beautiful watching Dylan Gabriel operate Oregon's offense and I want you to tell me if I'm crazy or if I'm connecting too many dots here Dylan Gabriel is on his third school but it kind of feels like he's always either been at Oregon or supposed to have been at Oregon. And it's, here's why it's a really circuitous path in my brain. And you can tell me how nuts I am. So Scott Frost used to be Oregon's offensive coordinator. When he was OC, McKenzie Milton came to camp. He wanted to sign McKenzie Milton. They're like,

no, we have to sign this guy from eugene justin herbert because he's local and so they signed justin herbert and i guess that worked out okay but mackenzie milton ends up playing for for scott frost at ucf frost leaves mackenzie milton then tells josh heupel at ucf hey there's this dude at my high school. You should recruit him. It's Dylan Gabriel. And it's like neither McKenzie Milton nor Dylan Gabriel had played for Oregon. It always felt like they should have been Oregon quarterbacks. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. It's a it's a great story. It's kind of, you know, it's just really synonymous. You think of Hawaiian quarter quarterbacks you think oregon you know and it's

of course it started with marcus mariotta but you know mazzoli had a lot of ties there and and just it feels like the right thing and uh you know i don't know if this is will stein or dan landing or what it is but they certainly know how to make quarterbacks feel comfortable in oregon and you know they did a tremendous job with bo nicks obviously you know his transition from auburn to oregon we know what that story played out like, and already it looks like Gabriel is very comfortable within that offense and looks like he's certainly happy to be in Eugene. Yeah. And he's played a ton of football, obviously at UCF and Oklahoma, but this, he was playing in the same offense, essentially at both those places. This is a different offense than the one he's played in, but he looked super comfortable. The ball got out so fast, which as we saw with Bo Nix is critical in what Oregon wants to do.

That was the part that I was, I guess, not shocked because he's played so much, but that it looked that comfortable and that easy for him right off the bat. Yeah. And I know we got a pretty vanilla offense there and, you know, they kept things in check, but still you wanted to see for me, you know, I think Oregon fans are tremendously spoiled because we were watching Bo Nix and he made very few mistakes, if any, in any game or at any time. So you go kind of expecting that level of perfection, which is not common. And was Dylan Gabriel perfect? No, he wasn't perfect, but he kept a pretty high level. The completion rate was good. He looked comfortable. He was,

he knew where his receivers were supposed to be. It just, it looked like more of the same in a, in a different quarterback. We saw this with Bo Nix getting drafted by the Broncos and and Sean Payton pointed out how accurate Bo Nix was in this offense and obviously look at the criticism of that is that the depth of target is not super deep in this offense but I'm not particularly worried about necessarily how that translates to the NFL. I'm worried about how it gains yards for Oregon right now. And I'm guessing that Dylan Gabriel is going to be one of the national leaders in completion percentage this year, just because he he he's playing in an offense. He was 69% completion

percentage last year. He's playing in an offense where Bo Nix was in the high seventies. Yeah. I mean, obviously if we're going to go off the track record of Bo Nix was in the high 70s. Yeah, I mean obviously if we're going to go off the track record of Bo Nix from the last two seasons and what Will Stein likes to do with his offense, you've got to think that that's going to be a great thing for Gabriel's completion percentage. And one of the cool things that he kind of brings to the table that might be, he might be a little bit more, you know, tailor-made for than Bo Nix was, was the fact that he throws a really tremendous deep ball. He's got really nice touch on that deep ball. He's got an absolute bevy of wide receivers to choose from. So you've got to think, you know, hopefully Gabriel knows, you know, when to take

his chances and when to take what's there and keep it in front of him. And if he does that, his completion percentage could, you know, I mean, it's going to be in the sixties at the very least, I would think. And, and like you said, if he's gaining five yards every time he throws the ball, that's a pretty good thing for the Oregon offense. And we saw a couple hookups with Tez Johnson, who strikes me as someone who could be that kind of deep threat. But who else in this receiving core do you think can take advantage of how well Gabriel throws the deep ball? All spring, I've heard a lot about Evan Stewart. That's probably no surprise to anybody that's been paying attention. I've heard that he's kind of been a nightmare, if you will, to guard one-on-one.

I've heard a lot of great things about Treshawn Holden stepping up and being more of a leader in that room and being more vocal and kind of taking that next step as well. So those are your first three, but then you're still talking about Gary Bryant Jr., who contributed last year. We saw Kyler Casper make some big plays in the spring game as well. We saw Justice Lowe, who's basically been untalked about, make a couple tremendous plays in the spring game so far. So I know I'm going to sound like the homer, but you could put that wide receiver room up at Oregon up against anybody in the country.

And if it's not the best it's up there for sure yeah now one thing as we watch the draft obviously Jackson Powers Johnson was the name we heard a lot about he winds up going in the second round of the Raiders how do they replace him because he was so valuable to Oregon over the last couple years yeah luckily for Oregon that's the only spot on the offensive line you have to to fill this year which is a really tough spot to fill and you're obviously taking away the nation's best in jackson powers johnson but they've got poncho lalulu out there uh from hawaii which we were talking about a little bit ago and i don't recall really any bad snaps there was one yesterday where there

was a miscommunication of when the snap was supposed to go and when it happened, but otherwise the snap yesterday for the most part was in the hands of the quarterback every time, uh, which is what you want. So right now it's looking like they're in pretty good shape there. But again, when you're going from one of the nation's best, it's, those are some really big shoes to fill. Yeah. Poncho is nasty. That's going to be, that's going to be something that, so eight guys drafted and Dan landing points out, he's like, this was, this is wonderful. He says, want more in the first, the second round, obviously that was, you know, just Bo Nixon and Jackson powers Johnson. But then you saw Troy Franklin and Brandon Dorilus and all those guys come off the board

too. But that's a lot of really good players that do have to be replaced, especially like Dorilus on that defensive line. How, how are those younger guys going to replace that group? Yeah. I mean, I would say specifically in the case of Doralus, you're thankful that Jordan Birch came back for another year. Cause that's a nice fill in there. You know, that's the key. That was probably one of the biggest things I wanted to see in the spring game was that defensive line and some of the young guys pulling up. I think the interior of the defensive line is really where Oregon is wanting to make

sure that they're ready. I don't think they're concerned per se, but I think they just want to be solid there. We saw some big plays from Michael Gardner on Saturday, a young guy coming up. Amari Washington's another guy that's been playing a lot of snaps there. I've heard, uh, you know, on the lay lay again, this year has taken another step forward. Mateo, Mateo. Yeah. DJ's younger brother. Yeah. So you're going to watch for him as well.

So Dan Lanning has recruited the defensive line, I think by position in numbers there more than anywhere in the last two years. And that's really going to show this year. They did lose Johnny Bowens to the transfer portal. And in years past, that would have almost been a crippling move where now it just kind of feels like there was an abundance of guys and they're kind of weeding each other out, if you will, a little bit. Yeah. And it's a, it's a weird dynamic. And I think Oregon's one of those schools where I don't, I don't really recall Oregon losing anybody they've ever wanted to,

you know, not wanting to lose in the transfer portal. Like they seem to be in that group that if, if they're active in the transfer portal, it's to get something they want. And if somebody is leaving, it's because it's a playing time issue. Yeah, I can. I mean, I, I feel like at least from the sources, there's two guys that have left the program in the last three years that Oregon would have liked to keep. And if you look at the numbers, that's a really good percentage. That's the great hit rate. But DJ James going to Auburn had a great career down there, was a great player. Maliki Montevall went to UCLA a couple seasons ago and had a kind of mixed results there. Those were two guys, but otherwise, yeah, you're looking at Oregon. They do such a tremendous job of retention, and I feel like a broken record. But Oregon is so well put together on the NIL front

from a team perspective. That's what a lot of people ignore. so well put together on the NIL front from a team perspective. That's what a lot of people ignore. I mean, you think of NIL and you think of recruiting and getting players on campus. Yeah, that's part of it. And you got to be well-funded and organized there, but Oregon's so organized, at least from an NIL standpoint of the existing players on the team. They rarely, if ever lose anybody that they truly want to keep. Yeah, and that's the key. That's how you keep it rolling. And like you mentioned, Jordan Burch coming back. He was a transfer from South Carolina, former five-star recruit.

I don't know that we've seen him reach his potential yet. I think that's something that people at South Carolina and people at Oregon have been wanting to see, but perhaps this is the year for that. And I got to ask you, J-H, like as they move into the big 10, how comfortable are you with where this roster is in terms of the other? I, I feel like we have to put them, lump them in with the contenders for the big 10 title. So how do you feel about this roster versus say, Ohio state, Penn state,

Michigan, that group? Yeah, all really good rosters. Right. And, and so there's two things that go with that. Obviously you've got to be good in the trenches. We know that that's what the big does. You've got to have depth first and foremost. We know that injuries are going to happen. Guys are going to be nicked up. They might miss a game. They might miss two or three games. You've got to have depth. And there's really not a position group on this roster where i i don't see oregon you know pretty well set three to four deep which is exactly what you want along with being good in the trenches but i think i'm looking at the best pure roster i've seen at oregon they've got skill at almost all the positions and they have depth and so i think just if you're looking one through 85, this is probably the best Oregon team I've seen in a long time, one through 85.

They've got young guys coming up, Aaron Flowers, maybe we'll talk about him, but Dakota Fields, some guys that stepped up that are really young yesterday. And then you brought in some transfers that are looking like, hey, Kobe Savage is going to be a dude. Jay Harris looked like he was yoked up and ready to run over a freight train yesterday as a running back. So, yeah, they're set up. And, you know, we I think you and I could probably both agree. You look at Ohio State and you look at Oregon and those are two really good football teams that are probably going to meet undefeated later on. Well, and it's interesting because I'm thinking when you say that you feel like it's the best put together Oregon roster you've seen in a long time. I'm thinking back to the last time Oregon played for the national title,

which is the 2014 season. Mariota wins the Heisman trophy that year, and they get to the national title game and play against Ohio State, which was by far the most talented team that year was, was just loaded with, with potential first rounders and it didn't go so well. How different would you say this roster is from that? Cause that was a really good roster. Like that's got Mariota, obviously DeForest Buckner. Like there's some real dudes on that roster, but how different is this roster made for maybe that one? Yeah, it's really unique and it's hard for me to say. I think that this roster today is more like the 2012 Oregon team, which was probably a better, you know, one through, you know, 30 team, that 2012 team than the 2014. That 2014 team was heavily propped up by Marcus

Mariota being absolutely phenomenal that year in a great offense that was made for, Taylor made for him. And you had some really good players like DeForest Buckner but I think that one through 22 was nowhere close to what the 2012 team was and nowhere close to where this team is today this team in the trenches is so much bigger and so much stronger and they can go too deep at any position and not drop have a huge drop off which, which is exactly what, you know, we both know needs to happen for the big. You mentioned some of the young guys, fields and flowers, you know, what about those guys stood out in the spring? Yeah, I think you just saw them making plays and looking comfortable. And here's what is most

impressive about those young guys. They're going against really good wide receivers. It's not like these guys were picking on walk-ons or guys you've never heard of. These are, you know, really good young players going up against experienced, skilled wide receivers. And again, you're going up against quite possibly one of the best quarterback rooms in the country. Oregon had four guys out there that were spraying the football all over the place and making some huge plays. So, you know, I think Aaron flowers and I'll touch on him. He's the guy that it feels like Oregon's been craving. Like, of course they love quarterback play and, and all this other stuff,

but you know, Oregon had Javon Hall on a few years ago who absolutely spoiled us at safety. He was, he was so good and just did so many things well. And the safety play at Oregon since Dan landing has arrived, which wasn't all his fault has been hit or miss. Okay. It's kind of been one of the weaker play at Oregon since Dan Lanning has arrived, which wasn't all his fault, has been hit or miss. OK, it's kind of been one of the weaker groups at Oregon. So now you bring in, you know, Ty Sheen Johnson returns and you bring in Kobe Savage as a starter from Kansas State. And then you couple that with a young guy like Aaron Flowers that, you know, yesterday looked like he's definitely got the makings of being a very good safety in this league for a long time.

It looks like that safety room might be back. And that's, you know, again, that's been the weakest link. And I think if Oregon is strong at safety this year, I believe that the rest of the position groups are better than safety for Oregon. That means they're going to be a pretty good football team. And just to boot, just so I don't forget, Oregon did make a really long field goal yesterday in the spring game. And I'm pretty sure that draw the biggest cheers of the day when Oregon made a field goal. I watched the replay of that and it was, I was like, is this a Bronx cheer?

What are we, what's going on here? But that was a nice, it was a nice kick. It was a good kick. And it was very refreshing for Oregon fans. so another person we got to see which felt like it's been been a while in coming was dante moore playing quarterback at oregon because dante was obviously committed to oregon flipped to ucla played for ucla last year now he's at oregon and it was interesting because one of the things that was unique about that transfer portal recruitment is Dante Moore seemed interested in going to a place where he would sit and develop a little bit, which you don't see every day. And I felt like you could see why, because you go from seeing Dylan Gabriel just catch the ball. There's the guy I need to throw to boom. It's out.

And Dante Moore is a little more hesitation there. And I thought, okay, he seemed to have a good pulse on himself, realizing he didn't need to go jump in and be a starter right away. Yeah, what an amazing amount of maturity it takes to realize that, right? Especially as a quarterback, because you're constantly expecting to be the guy, be the team leader. You're, you know, at, at up to this point, you've been the best player on your football team, probably since you were four years old, you know? And so it takes a lot of humility. I think if you kind of look at the big picture and say, Hey, look, me sitting behind an experienced

guy might not be the worst thing for my long-term career. Uh, Dante Moore flashed that cannon of an arm, you know, that we saw. I felt like if you can get Dante Moore to simply just be a little bit more consistent, which I'm sure is what he's striving for and can come over time, you've got a really good looking quarterback there. I've heard some great things and I've heard that a lot of practices, the difference between Gabriel and Dante Moore isn't like this. It's more like this. You know what I mean? These guys are a lot closer together. That's a pretty good problem for Dan Lanning and Willstein to have. But do I think he takes the job away from Dylan Gabriel this year? Of course not. But if anything happens and you need Dante Moore to pinch or whatever, you feel really good

about that situation. You feel like you got a chance to continue winning that game. Again, if Dante Moore can get more comfortable within the offense, learn to, like I think kind of what you were alluding to, maybe trust his instincts a little bit more and just get more comfortable there, that's a really good-looking quarterback one year from now. Yeah, because the D-ball, as you mentioned, looked great. The throws are there.

He can really power the ball out to the edge too. Just got to be comfortable operating the offense. Got to be quick and decisive. And who better to learn from than a guy in Dylan Gabriel who has been quick and decisive pretty much since he showed up at UCF five years ago. And the cool part is you listen to interviews. Those two talk about each other so well and with so much respect you know Dante says that you know Dylan has such a great feel on when it's time to be serious and when it's game time and when to just maybe crack a joke and lighten things up and keep it you know friendly and fun and he said he's

had such a tremendous time learning under Gabriel and just really called him a very special mentor time so you know if you're Dan Lanning and you're Will Stein, that's exactly what you want to hear. You want to hear QB one and QB two get along really well. And, you know, you did kind of bring QB two in to learn under QB one and that's very much happening. So, um, it's, I mean, I don't, I mean, we talk about Dan Lanning so much and you just think of all these little things that he ends up lining up. I don't know if the guy has a horseshoe or what, but he he he certainly seems to have a lot of these things figured out well he he just has to figure it out on the field because you know they've had the most talented team in the pac-12 the previous two years they didn't win a pac-12 title either of those two years so they've

got to figure out how to how to convert that talent to titles, the degree of difficulty goes up because I think Ohio State may be the most talented team in the country and they got to deal with them in their league now. So this is going to be so much fun, Jay Hop. So I saw pretty full Autzen Stadium on Saturday and I know culturally on the West Coast, that's not a thing like filling up the stadium for the spring game but it seems like the people at Oregon are pretty

pumped about a team going to the Big Ten. Yeah, Oregon fans know how to fill up a stadium on Saturday and all week long the weather report was looking a little bit dicey there. We get a little bit of that spring showers but I mean, Oregon fans know it never rains at Austin Stadium so got a pretty good day there you saw the turnout was there the energy was there there was a Matt Kearney concert after and the field was full of people still you know the Ducks had eight players drafted in the NFL draft on Saturday a record for the for the school so so many things going the right direction the there. Ticket sales are through the roof. It's, I don't know. It just looks like it's going to be a big season.

And like you said, Lanning needs that. He needs those, you know, statement wins. He needs kind of that signature win. You know, you've got a huge opportunity early on to beat Ohio State in the season, potentially. Of course, Michigan's going to be good. Penn State. There's a lot of really good football teams that Oregon will play. But at the end of the day, you got to win that last game of the regular season. You got to beat Washington. You got to get that monkey off your back. And it certainly looks like the two programs are fairly separated in terms of talent at this point. New league, same rivalry, but yeah, very different situation this year versus last year j-hop thank you so much thanks andy that is justin hopkins from scoop duck talking oregon ducks and yeah big expectations

for oregon this year they had eight guys drafted and we have not talked about the remainder of the nfl draft we were very big on the first round on Friday, talked all about it with, uh, with Duke's scoop who, yeah, he's still mad about those Falcons picks. And in fact, we spent so much time talking about the Michael Penix Jr. pick that we sort of overshadowed the Bo Nix speaking of Oregon, getting picked number 12 by the Broncos. Like Bo Nix is supposed to be the Broncos starter, essentially based on that pick. I don't know about that, but I also don't know about the, the leaked, I'm assuming coming from Sean Payton or at least coming from the Broncos PR office, uh, the, the tech, the, the tweets that came out from Adam Schefter right afterwards saying Sean Payton feels strongly about Bo Nix as he felt about Patrick Mahomes, who he had planned to take, but then the Chiefs took him to pick before.

We'll see about that. But I do know he values accuracy, and Bo Nix was an extremely accurate quarterback. I believe 77.9% completion percentage last year. So we'll see how that winds up. The numbers everybody wants coming out of the draft. By conference, of course, the SEC had the most. The SEC always has the most. But no, it's just a media creation that everybody thinks the SEC is better than everybody else. No, it turns out that people whose jobs depend on picking the best players always pick the most

SEC players. So I think they might feel that way too, but the SEC led the way with 59 picks. Now here's where it gets interesting. The PAC 12 came in second with 43. There will be no PAC 12 next year. I mean, I guess they're still going to call whatever Oregon State, Washington State are the Pac-12, even though it's the two-pack, but that's got to be frustrating, but it is validation of when we said this was the best year of Pac-12 football in a long, long time. It wasn't just that there were a couple of good teams at the top. There was a lot of talent throughout the league, 43 draft picks. So that was number two among the conferences, 42 for the big 10, 41 for the ACC, 31 for the big 12, eight for the independence, six for the Sunbelt, five for the American, three

for conference USA, two for Mountain West, two for the Mac. Michigan, the leader among the schools at 13. Remember, Jim Harbaugh had predicted they would break the Georgia record. I believe Georgia's record is 15 in one draft. That was not broken, but 13 is still an incredible number off a team that won the national championship. Number two, though, was Texas. We said we expected Texas to have a lot of players drafted. We've talked about this over the last few months that Texas's ability to now create draft picks again signals a change from the last 10 or so years of Texas football because they were not developing draft picks. They were not developing people for the next level. Players were coming in highly ranked prospects. They were not leaving as impressive draft prospects. They're now doing that again. That more than anything else signals to me that what Steve Sarkeesian is doing at Texas is sustainable. If he keeps this up and we can already point to next year who we think at Texas is going to If he keeps this up and we can already point to next year,

who we think at Texas is going to be a very high draft pick Kelvin banks, their left tackle. We're talking a potential top five type draft pick top 10 type draft pick. Like Texas is going to have one or more of those guys every year. And they're also going to have role players who are going to be drafted in the second, third, fourth, fifth, third, you know, all of those rounds. So that's a different look than what we saw from Texas for most of the 2000 teens. That's a team that can compete for national titles. You have to be able to do that. Alabama, by the way, had 10. Florida State and Washington also had 10. Now, that's the question. Alabama has been able to sustain that

and keep doing that. For Texas, for Florida State, for Washington, can you keep doing that? Can you keep having a bunch of guys every year? You'll lose a bunch of the draft. You reload. You put more in the draft. I suspect that Texas is going to do that. I suspect that Florida State's going to do that. It's up to Jed Fisher, Washington, to keep that going because obviously he's new. He's had to revamp that roster. I believe it's 20 of 22 starters are gone from that national championship team that played the national title game. So that is, that's quite a challenge. And you just, we just talked about Oregon. They just lost eight to the draft. They will probably lose a similar number next year. They seem to be in that reload phase. Now they have to capitalize on their talent.

We talked the other day about where we'd love to see guys end up. And I said, Jeremiah Trotter to the Eagles. Well, he went to the Eagles, which I think the Eagles might be my favorite draft class because, you know, as college football fans, we look at this a little bit differently. We look at it like, how many guys did you take that are solid producers for really good teams in the lower rounds that we're pretty sure are going to help you? And the Eagles, look, there's no guarantee that all these guys are going to work out. But I bet a lot of them will because of the level they played at in college football and the production that they had in college football. So we know about Quinian Mitchell in the first

round. We know he's going to be good from Toledo. Nick Saban said that's who they wanted out of the transfer portal, but they couldn't get him into the transfer portal. And then they took Cooper to Jean in the second round. So essentially two secondary starters in your first two rounds. That's huge. One developmental guy. Who's a guy we talked to at the senior bowl, Jalix Hunt from Houston Christian. Remember he's the one who started as a safety at Cornell and then kind of grew into an edge rusher. Transferred to Houston Christian was really good. He's more of a developmental guy. We don't know what he's going to wind up in the NFL.

But after that, the Eagles got Will Shipley, the running back from Clemson, Aniyah Smith from Texas A&M, who it was interesting watching the NFL people analyze this. They're like, well, you know, he could probably end up in the slot. He could do anything. Remember, he played wide receiver and running back at Texas A&M. That's a great pickup in the fifth round. Great pickup.

Jeremiah Trotter Jr., also a fifth-round pick. Linebacker was an issue after N'Kobe Dean got hurt last year for the Eagles. He's a fifth round pick, but I bet he can play pretty much right away. They got Johnny Wilson from Florida State, the receiver in the sixth round, six foot seven. He's massive. So guarantee that he works in the NFL because you don't know if the speed translates. The size may not matter as much against better cornerbacks, but it's worth a pick in the sixth round. And then Dylan McMahon, the interior offensive lineman from NC State is one who can help them with depth. Remember they just lost Jason Kelsey.

He was the 190th pick Dylan McMahon was. Jason Kelsey, for those who don't remember, the 191st overall pick. I'm not, no pressure, no pressure, Dylan. Another draft I like, the Steelers. They got Zach Frazier in the second round. He's the one I mocked to them in the first round, the center from West Virginia. I love Zach Frazier. Like he's going to start for the Steelers. He's going to be awesome.

They had Marquise Pouncey for all those years at center. They could just kind of set it and forget it. I think they can do that again with Zach Frazier. They also got Peyton Wilson, the linebacker from NC State. He is long rangy. They're going to love him in that defense. They're going to love him. So the teams in Pennsylvania love the way they drafted. And of course, we got to give a shout out to the Bears. Probably the most impactful draft pick in the entire draft. No, I'm not talking about Caleb Williams at number one overall, though I'm sure he'll be good.

Torrey Taylor, the punter from Iowa, the ultimate weapon. He's going to the Bears. Very excited about that. And of course, Caleb Williams is very excited too. He apparently texted Torrey Taylor and said, hey, Torrey, congratulations. We're not planning on punting very much here anymore though. So I cannot wait to see that in action. Also, perhaps the most interesting draft phone call of the draft. We go to the seventh round, Michael Pratt, the quarterback from Tulane, finding out where he's going in the draft.

What's up, man? How you doing? I'm doing well. I'm here with all my family and friends. Well, get your jackets. Green Bay. Yes, Michael Pratt was in the pool. In the rain, too. In the pool when the call came in that he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round. Congratulations to Michael Pratt. You don't need the jacket initially. And I think you need a bicycle though, to get from,

get from the practice field to the locker room for training camp. So do bring your bicycle, bring your jacket later. One more piece of news before we go non-draft related, this is video game related. So Matt Brown, who runs the excellent extra points newsletter, he covers all the administrative stuff in college football. He's done a ton of stuff on the new EA Sports College football video game using public records requests, trying to figure out what things the schools are sending to the game to put in the game. Well, he had some news over the weekend about who's going to be on the cover.

And it's not one who, it's multiple who's. And as we said a couple months ago, when we were arguing about this in the chat about who it was going to be, it will be current players. This is the first year they can have an actual current college football player on the cover. Of course, they're going to do that, but it will be multiple players from multiple conferences at multiple positions. So you feel free to guess at who that might be. I will throw out one guess. I'll throw out a couple guesses. I think if they're all multiple positions and there are no repeats in positions, I think the quarterback's going to be Shadur Sanders.

I think we're going to see Shadur Sanders on the cover of that video game. As far as everybody else, it's going to be tough. Do we get an offensive lineman? Do we get a Kelvin Banks or a Will Campbell? I'd love to see that. I don't know if the world's ready for that. Do we get a D lineman? Do we get like Mason Graham or Kenneth Grant from Michigan? I'd love to see that. Producer River says, got to get a Nick Saban goat edition. There will not be a Nick Saban cover because it's going to be current players. I told you that before. Matt Brown, through his reporting, has confirmed that. They didn't go through all this. So they wouldn't put current players on the cover.

That's the whole point. So feel free to offer your guesses. Willie in the chat says it's going to be Travis Hunter from Colorado, not Shador. Well, if it's not Shador, that does open up Carson Beck and Quinn Ewers. One of those two is the quarterback.

So maybe, maybe it's Travis Hunter on one Carson carson or quinn ewers on another we'll find out we will find out but i cannot wait the game looks like it's coming out in july looks like in may ea sports will officially give us all the details. We're not far. Because remember, tomorrow is International NSYNC Day. It's going to be May, April 30th. So we're not far from learning the official details of the EA Sports College football game.

And we're really not far from playing it. And that means really not that far from the 2024 college football season. Yeah, this off season is flying by. We'll be back tomorrow. We will get the Dylan Raiola hype train cranked up with Sean Callahan from Husker Online. Yeah, we're doing this. I know what you're thinking.

Andy, you've disappointed us before. You've hyped these quarterbacks throughout the offseason. Why are you doing this? I'll tell you why. Because it's April. We'll talk tomorrow.